Seven years ago, Alabama-Birmingham athletic director Herman Frazier was in need of a head coach. Four of the five candidates he would interview were head coaches.

In March of 2002, he met the lone assistant, Arkansas' Mike Anderson, at a hotel coffee shop near the St. Louis airport. Frazier wasn't sure what to expect. Why, in two decades of coaching, had the man not landed a head coaching job?

They clicked. Immediately. Frazier felt an instant kinship.

"I saw a lot of myself in Mike Anderson," said Frazier, now Temple's athletic director. "He was a guy who had worked hard to be where he wanted to be but just wasn't getting an opportunity."

Frazier, too, had been overlooked for the athletic director's job at Arizona State after giving the university several decades as a student-athlete - he was a 1976 Olympic gold medalist in track - and administrator.
They spoke for more than four hours.

"Sometimes you meet people and you just hit it off," Anderson said.

Frazier liked how much Anderson seemed to care about the athletes he coached, how important his family was to him. Anderson seemed like the right hire, but Frazier had to proceed cautiously. He still had four head coaches to interview.

There was little margin for error. How would Frazier replaces decades of Bartows, first Gene, followed by his son, Murry.

Frazier trusted his gut.

Anderson, after paying his dues for two decades, was finally a head coach.

UAB was a good fit. He had grown up in Birmingham and brought the same tenacity that his mentor, Nolan Richardson, taught at Arkansas - a Forty Minutes of Hell approach that kicked most opponents' backsides. He inherited a team that went 13-17 the previous year and led it to 21 victories in his first season.

UAB won at least 22 games each of the next three seasons and made its way into the NCAA Tournament. Anderson was officially a hot commodity.
Missouri, meanwhile, was in disarray.

After a promising start with coach Quin Snyder, the program was foundering. In the fall of 2004, it was placed on NCAA probation for three years following questionable activities surrounding former point guard Rick Clemons.

In February of 2006, Snyder resigned.

Missouri wanted to play it right with this hire.

Athletic director Mike Alden placed a call to his old friend Frazier, with whom he had worked at Arizona State. Frazier gave Anderson a glowing recommendation.

"He was the right fit," Alden said.

Was there debate about the hire?

"Like any hire, there was the usual hand-wringing and angst and the people with their agendas," Alden said. "But he quickly showed he belonged here."

Did he ever.

"The way Coach Anderson came in, he was preaching about 'I'm going to bring this program back,' I think a lot of people were like, 'all right, well, maybe five, six years down the road perhaps,' " senior Matt Lawrence said. "The program when he got it was definitely in disarray.

"But I just knew something - I had never seen a guy just hate losing so much, and the way he instilled that in his players is unbelievable. Now we hate losing that much. I never thought I would hate it so much."

His start wasn't without incident. Last season, he suspended five players for a game against Nebraska after an incident at a nightclub.

Anderson believes the incident brought the team closer. The veterans stayed in town the following summer and bonded with the younger players when they arrived on campus.

"I think they trust one another, they believe in one another now," Anderson said. "They push one another. Our practices, if you have ever had a chance to watch our practices, it is war. We get after it. We get after it."

So does Anderson, who has the Tigers on the brink of a trip to the Final Four. All that is left is one very intimidating Connecticut team. And a debt to be paid.

Young Tigers go old school
By Bryan Burwell (bburwell@post-dispatch.com)
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Saturday, Mar. 28 2009

GLENDALE, Ariz. — At the end of this dazzling nationally televised infomercial
on the simple pleasures of the Fastest 40 Minutes of Basketball, Missouri's new
basketball wizard of ahhhhs was still trying his best to make us take our eyes
off the figurative man behind the curtain.

"Everything we do begins with our defense," Mike Anderson kept telling anyone
who would listen.

The Mizzou coach wants you to believe that the essence of the Tigers'
miraculous run to the Elite Eight is all about defense, defense, defense and
more defense. He wants you to concentrate on the suffocating man-to-man
pressure, the annoying in-your-face traps, the relentless frenzy of too many
long and athletic bodies coming at you from one baseline to the next.

And of course all of that is true. But it is not the whole truth and nothing
but the truth. All of that changed during Thursday night's 102-91 Sweet 16
victory over No. 2 seed Memphis. When you hang 102 points on a Memphis team
that loves to run as much as the ponies at Churchill Downs, and you do it with
the CBS cameras rolling for a prime-time TV audience, it's hard to keep playing
that defense-defense-defense card all day long.

It's hard to argue that defense is the essence of this team. But now as the No.
3 seed Tigers (31-6) head into today's West Regional final against No. 1 seed
Connecticut (30-4), it's impossible to ignore that their breathless, unselfish
and old school offense deserves equal billing on the marquee.

The figurative man behind the curtain is Anderson's motion offense that relies
on smart players who know how to play the game. And in case you're not into the
subtlety of that sentence, let me make it clear that there is a great
difference between playing ball and knowing how to play ball.

Playing ball is being able to jump high, run fast and shoot the ball with no
particular rhyme or reason. Knowinghow to play means understanding the joy of a
well-placed back pick, the value of a clever backdoor pass and fundamental fun
of always finding the open man. "This offense is so free," said Leo Lyons.
"It's up to us as players to rely on knowledge and instinct to do the right
thing. Sometimes you can sense that the pick and roll is there. Sometimes it's
the back door. Coach leaves it up to us to figure out what's there and what
isn't."

If you've ever played a little playground ball, think of these young Tigers as
that band of old dudes who show up at the outdoor courts every Saturday or
Sunday morning and never leave. They are the annoying bunch of hoop greybeards
who win every game with frustrating ease because they play zone defense, run
endless pick-and-rolls, then win every game because some old guy wearing knee
high socks hits a set shot from the top of the key off a double pick.

Kimmie English laughs when you offer that comparison but nods his head in
immediate agreement.

"I think that's because of our coach," said the smooth-shooting freshman sixth
man. "That's the kind of player he was, too. So we have an offense that thrives
on reading what the defender does. We're just a bunch of good solid players who
just play hard. We understand it doesn't matter how high you jump, if we take
your legs out from under you on a box-out, you're not going to get the rebound."

It's really no accident that Mizzou's players relish the notion of this
old-school way of life, because it runs deep in their basketball DNA. Baseball
gets a lot of romance as the sport of fathers and sons, but basketball has a
lot of that romance, too. Either on the urban playground, the suburban driveway
or the country dirt court, dads pass on their hoop instincts to sons. Kim
English spent his early basketball youth learning valuable lessons sitting on
the sidelines of various inner city playgrounds watching his dad Kim Sr. and
his band of Baltimore hoop legends systematically run younger, faster kids off
the courts on Sunday afternoons. "They didn't let me play with them until I was
13," said English. "But by the time I did play, I had to play just like them."

A few hundred miles north of Baltimore, a young Zaire Taylor was learning
similar lessons on the asphalt courts of Staten Island, New York. "I never
played against those old guys," Taylor laughed. "I would usually be on the team
with the older guys, and we would dominate. I ran with my Uncle Garrett, and we
would always run a 2-3 zone, and nobody runs a 2-3 zone in pickup ball. I
really learned a lot by playing with him."

On the courts of Clove Lake and Mahoney parks, Taylor picked up the rhythms of
old-school basketball that remain in his system today.

"My uncle and I played the same way JT (Tiller) and I play now," Taylor said.
"You ever see the way a Slinky moves, where one side goes up and the other goes
back? Well that's me and JT now. The movement was just so in synch."

That special in-synch offensive execution is going to take on an even larger
role against UConn than it did against Memphis because of the dominating
presence of the Huskies' 7-foot-3 All-America center Hasheem Thabeet. Thabeet
averages 4.4 blocked shots a game and alters maybe a dozen more. In Thursday's
72-60 victory over Purdue, Thabeet intimidated Purdue's guards when they
entered the lane, absolutely freaking them out.

If Missouri expects to win this game and reach the Final Four (wow, that still
sounds strange), these young Tigers are going to have to recall all those
old-school playground memories. On the playground, the old dudes didn't much
buy into being the ones who freak out.

I like Mike Anderson. I met him at the Houston airport last Feb... I was coming home from a conference and he was coming back from a recruiting trip... talked with him briefly... Really nice guy... I was respectful towards, called him Coach, but let him know where my allegiance lies... heh. Hope he stays at Mizzou, but I feel he may bolt.

Bob Dole

03-28-2009, 12:20 PM

This game cannot start soon enough.

Bob Dole just called his favorite bartender and she's going to open the bar early so Bob Dole can watch the game there. hehe

KChiefs1

03-28-2009, 12:21 PM

All part of growing up for MU's Taylor

<HR width="100%" noShade SIZE=1>By Dana O'Neil
ESPN.com

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Monte Ross' phone jingled last spring and when the person on the other end said hello the Delaware coach nearly dropped the phone.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER type="block" width="5" height="1"></TD><TD width=200>http://sports.espn.go.com/photo/2009/0327/ncb_g_taylor1_200.jpg</TD></TR><TR><TD width=200>Zaire Taylor is starting to reach his potential at Missouri under coach Mike Anderson.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Fifteen months earlier Ross and Zaire Taylor (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=27692) had parted ways when Taylor walked into Ross' office and said he was leaving school, said he wanted to be a point guard and Ross wouldn't let him so he was out. Ross didn't do anything to stop him.

They didn't part badly, more of an agree-to-disagree on the concepts of discipline and hard work.

Fast-forward to April 2008 and there's Taylor on the other end of the phone saying simply, "Hey Coach."

"He gave me one of the biggest highlights of my short head-coaching career," Ross said. "Called me out of the clear blue sky and says, 'Coach I just wanted to call and say thank you. I appreciate everything you were trying to do for me. I've really matured and I understand.' I could tell in his voice, it wasn't the same Zaire that I had coached for a year."

Some people go their whole lives without learning how to say the hardest five words in the English language: "I'm sorry" and "You are forgiven."

In 22 short but hard-worn years, Taylor has mastered both.

He was evicted from his apartment because his roommate bolted and left him with back rent, forced to sleep four days in a computer lab. Forgave him.

He and his fiancée broke up, giving him a taste of heartbreak. Forgave her.

He ditched Ross, convinced the coach didn't know what he was talking about, and later learned he was wrong. Apologized.

As he stands on the precipice of the Final Four, his Missouri Tigers (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=142) tantalizingly close to the one step their program has never taken, Taylor averages 6.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists but leads the team in perspective.

"What he was trying to do, I wasn't ready for," Taylor said. "I've grown so much here. Some of the credit goes to Coach [Mike] Anderson but it's also because I was willing to grow."

There is an introspective side to Taylor, a rare commodity among the usually surface-scraping college set. He is disarmingly honest, occasionally self-deprecating, a poet, songwriter and a man assistant coach Melvin Watkins says fancies himself a philosopher.

His best case study so far has been himself. Taylor's circuitous path from his Staten Island home to Delaware to house-less -- if not altogether homeless -- to starter on a team 40 minutes from the Final Four reads like something out of a screenplay.

Taylor argues it's far less sexy than that.

"Everybody goes through it," he said. "As a person, in order to experience the pleasures of life you have to experience some pain. I've just had some of mine already."

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER type="block" width="5" height="1"></TD><TD width=200>http://sports.espn.go.com/photo/2009/0327/ncb_g_ross1_sw_200.jpg</TD></TR><TR><TD width=200>Monte Ross and Zaire Taylor didn't see eye-to-eye while the two were together at Delaware.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Taylor played one full season and half of another at Delaware, starting 29 games, appearing in 15 more. He wasn't a bad kid, stayed late to work on his game, went to class and did what he needed to do there to get by.

But Ross was new to the program and new to the head-coaching ranks and wanted to set his standards early. He rode Taylor hard, probably harder than anyone else because while Taylor did well, Ross thought he could do so much more.

Ross' desire for discipline and Taylor's response didn't exactly mesh. In January 2007 coach and player parted ways. Ross wasn't angry, more hopeful that eventually somewhere Taylor would hear his message.

"People will say, 'Shoot, you won how many games and you let a kid go who's in the Elite Eight?'" Ross said. "But it wouldn't have worked here. He needed to get away from our program to realize his full potential."

Through his friendship with Keon Lawrence (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=31795), a Missouri recruit and AAU teammate, Taylor decided to check out Missouri.

He arrived on campus straight out of New York attitude central casting, wearing a polo shirt, tight jeans, scruffy beard and a belt Anderson cannot forget.

With a big buckle in the middle, it was made to look as if there was money spilling out of his waistband and was realistic enough that people sometimes stopped Taylor to tell him he was losing his cash.

"I said, boy you get rid of that belt if you're coming back here," Anderson said.

Getting rid of the belt was the easy part.

Getting to Missouri was trickier. Recognizing that his entire transcript wouldn't transfer, Taylor decided to remain at Delaware and take extra classes. He and his mom pooled their money and Taylor found an apartment with a roommate. But when the roommate skipped out, leaving some unpaid rent behind, Taylor couldn't foot the bill and he was evicted.

He spent two or three weeks without a permanent place to put his head, crashing with friends when he could and curling up on a chair in the 24-hour computer lab for a handful of nights.

"It wasn't that bad," Taylor said. "I still had my car. I didn't sleep in my car, though. I figured the computer lab was more comfortable."

Eventually Taylor finished the course work and headed to Missouri.
His first pickup game was a gasser disaster. Taylor had spent the spring and summer playing in the rec leagues, where his high-flying dunks and killer crossovers gave him a rather inflated sense of worth.

"I felt like I was Jordan all the time in the rec league," he said. "Then we went up and down the court maybe four times I couldn't move. I think everyone was thinking, 'Can the kid play?' But Coach took a chance on me."

And with that leap of faith from Anderson, Taylor grew a mile.

He lost his grandfather while he sat out due to the NCAA transfer rule. Lawrence, his buddy from back home, transferred to Seton Hall. He and his fiancée split up, a laundry list of things that might have set another kid packing.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER type="block" width="5" height="1"></TD><TD width=200>http://sports.espn.go.com/photo/2009/0327/ncb_u_taylor2_200.jpg</TD></TR><TR><TD width=200>Taylor is averaging just under nine points a game for the Tigers in the NCAA tournament.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>But Taylor was another kid, a changed one.

"We basically told him we're not going to change. This is who we are," said Watkins, the assistant coach who helped bring him to Missouri. "Maybe it was because it was his last chance, I don't know. But he got it."

Taylor speaks to his roommate, the one who left him high and dry, every now and again. Given the chance to out him by offering his name, he declined.

His fiancée has a new boyfriend, but she talks to Taylor, too, wished him luck in the NCAA tournament.

And then there is Ross. The phone calls didn't stop after the first one. Taylor calls his former coach almost once a month, dialing him up after the Blue Hens' big wins over VCU and George Mason, or calling every now and then just to say hello.

In an attempt to explain his almost masochistic willingness to turn the other cheek, the underage philosopher used an analogy. Taylor loves Swedish Fish, usually has a stash hidden in his locker. Once a friend asked for a handful and Taylor said no.

A few days later, Taylor asked for something of his and the friend declined, reminding Taylor of his refusal to share the gummy candy.

"So what are you going to do? One time in like a million I say no but every other time I say yes and you remember the no?" Taylor said. "All the things we've been through, the experiences can outweigh the pain. You have to be willing to assess the situation as a whole."

He's gotta win three more to reach the level of "greatness", but it's good to see Mizzou and Oklahoma back in the conversation of the national scene. It's great for the Big XII; I'm sick of these east coast conferences. We all know Kansas is in great hands with Self, so hopefully Anderson and Capel stick around...

CoMoChief

03-28-2009, 12:51 PM

Fastest 40 min of crap.

Mosbonian

03-28-2009, 01:10 PM

Fastest 40 min of crap.

This gives me hope...you are rooting against us.

mmaddog
*******

Skip Towne

03-28-2009, 01:36 PM

Yeah greatness. This will open up the recruiting doors for years to come. And MU will become a national power and steal all of KU's recruits. Then they will win a string of NC's and make everybody forget about John Wooden. Mizzou will rule the world!!!

Dartgod

03-28-2009, 01:44 PM

Yeah greatness. This will open up the recruiting doors for years to come. And MU will become a national power and steal all of KU's recruits. Then they will win a string of NC's and make everybody forget about John Wooden. Mizzou will rule the world!!!
Yeah, that's exactly what I got out of the article. :rolleyes:

Honestly, I love all the attention we're getting right now and I hate it at the same time. Mizzou's quick rise has people's expectations out of whack.

KChiefs1

03-28-2009, 02:11 PM

Huskies looking to withstand Tigers' pressure

<HR width="100%" noShade SIZE=1>Posted by Dana O'Neil

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- His players out of the room and off to do individual interviews, Jim Calhoun shared a little secret.

"I'm a little more concerned with depth than they are," the Connecticut coach said.

Other than the scoreboard, the most shocking thing out of the Sweet 16 game between Memphis and Missouri was the sight of Memphis players doubled over and pulling on their uniform shorts -- the universal sign for exhaustion.

As the Tigers get ready to tangle with Connecticut in the Elite Eight on Saturday, most people are wondering how Mizzou will handle Hasheem Thabeet (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=31559).

But he's one guy.

The bigger question is how can Connecticut handle the Tigers -- all nine of them?

"I know I could get tired and Miguel Paul (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=41071) is going to come in and do the same thing and maybe even raise it up another notch, so I don't have to worry about getting tired," Zaire Taylor (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=27692) said. "That's where it goes back to what Coach said -- our biggest strength is our bench."

Missouri doesn't just beat teams. The Tigers wear people out. Mike Anderson wisely rotates his players, with no one averaging more than 28 minutes per game.

That's why Calhoun, whose bench runs only two people deep since starter Jerome Dyson (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=31554) went down with an injury, is a little less blasé than his players, who quickly shrugged off questions about their numbers.

"The delicate balance is don't get sucked into a game that's too fast for you," Calhoun said. "And conversely, attack pressure to make them pay a price."

It's almost funny to talk about UConn as the team that needs to slow it down. The Huskies aren't exactly Georgetown or some plodding team cut from the Big Ten cloth.

They can run and they do run.

But they can't run with Missouri. Few can.

"We love playing fast, but we saw what happened with Memphis," Craig Austrie (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=26957) said. "They really fell into the trap of playing too fast. With A.J. [Price] and myself, we have the ability to kind of control the game and see what's going on out there, play with poise."

It sounds easy but it's not. Mizzou is a suck-you-into-our-vortex sort of tornado, a whirling dervish that can make a game and an opponent frantic.

Connecticut played 15 other teams in the Big East this year.

None of them are like Missouri.

Louisville, a fan of full-court pressure, comes closest, but not even the Cardinals' intense defense mimics what the Tigers can bring.

"Louisville has a traditional 2-2-1 matchup type of pressure," guard A.J. Price (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=22422) said. "This team, they switch it up throughout the game. They really won't give you the same look. Sometimes they will just trap out of nowhere. They really don't have any sense of structure out of their pressure. They just like to pressure and speed you up."

Connecticut has endured its own (I)des of March if you will -- injury, illness and investigation -- to get to the brink of the Final Four.

To make the last trip, to Detroit, the Huskies will now face an attack of biblical proportions.

Yeah greatness. This will open up the recruiting doors for years to come. And MU will become a national power and steal all of KU's recruits. Then they will win a string of NC's and make everybody forget about John Wooden. Mizzou will rule the world!!!

At least winning one Big 12 tourney and getting to the elite 8 hasn't already gone to thier heads.

Sure-Oz

03-28-2009, 03:41 PM

Fastest 40 min of crap.

:rolleyes:

DaWolf

03-28-2009, 04:57 PM

Good season Mizzou. See you next year, hope your coach sticks around...

Bowser

03-28-2009, 04:58 PM

At least winning one Big 12 tourney and getting to the elite 8 hasn't already gone to thier heads.

I'd say it's more in the heads of KU fans that MU won the Big XII and went further in the tourney. Some, anyway.

KChiefs1

03-28-2009, 05:04 PM

At least winning one Big 12 tourney and getting to the elite 8 hasn't already gone to thier heads.

MU's 2008-09 basketball season > KU's 2008-09 basketball season

DaWolf

03-28-2009, 05:06 PM

MU's 2008-09 basketball season > KU's 2008-09 basketball season

Perhaps, but I would think they usually don't hang Elite 8 banners up unless there's nothing else to go up there...

milkman

03-28-2009, 05:07 PM

I don't watch much college hoops, and have no allegience to any school.

I'll say this though.

If Mike Anderson sticks around, with this tournament run and the style that they play, they could attract some more athletic recruits and become a pragram that contends in conference and on a national level.

beavis

03-28-2009, 05:12 PM

Yeah, that's exactly what I got out of the article. :rolleyes:

Honestly, I love all the attention we're getting right now and I hate it at the same time. Mizzou's quick rise has people's expectations out of whack.

I love how it's so obviously freaking out KU fans though. You need to look no farther than the posts on here for proof.

banyon

03-28-2009, 05:14 PM

Alabama or Kentucky?

DaWolf

03-28-2009, 05:16 PM

I love how it's so obviously freaking out KU fans though. You need to look no farther than the posts on here for proof.

Yeah, and I don't get that. It's not like KU is going anywhere. If anything, it should piss off K-State fans. I remember a few years ago people and the media were laughing that Mizzou passed on Huggins and hired Anderson. That is looking brilliant right now with K-State stuck with Frank Martin...

Right now I don't know why anyone in a good situation (Anderson, Donovan, Calipari) would consider Kentucky. That job is just set up for failure right now unless said coach can win the championship every couple of years there....

Sure-Oz

03-28-2009, 05:20 PM

Some KU fans need to remind us lowly Mizzou fans that they're globo gym and they're better than us!
http://forum.macworld.se/blogg/wp-content/uploads/dodgeball_01.jpg

Bowser

03-28-2009, 05:21 PM

Some KU fans need to remind us lowly Mizzou fans that they're globo gym and they're better than us!
http://forum.macworld.se/blogg/wp-content/uploads/dodgeball_01.jpg

LMAO

luv

03-28-2009, 05:21 PM

We've gotta pay the man. Quick-like.

The local news here said they were going to give him $1.2M per year for the next either 3 or 5 years.

WilliamTheIrish

03-28-2009, 05:23 PM

Alabama or Kentucky?

Anthony Grant (VCU) to Bama. UK will get Travis Ford (He goes to church and drinks mint j's)

KcMizzou

03-28-2009, 05:26 PM

Yeah, and I don't get that. It's not like KU is going anywhere. If anything, it should piss off K-State fans. I remember a few years ago people and the media were laughing that Mizzou passed on Huggins and hired Anderson. That is looking brilliant right now with K-State stuck with Frank Martin... I actually like Frank Martin a lot.

I thought it was a silly hire at first... but he's changed my opinion.

I think all 3 local teams have a good future. The Big 12 north is rising.

WilliamTheIrish

03-28-2009, 05:30 PM

Yeah, and I don't get that. It's not like KU is going anywhere. If anything, it should piss off K-State fans. I remember a few years ago people and the media were laughing that Mizzou passed on Huggins and hired Anderson. That is looking brilliant right now with K-State stuck with Frank Martin...

Whaaat? (cig falls from end of lips..) Stuck with Martin? Martin took that team that was expected to win 4 games in conference and won 9. They faltered down the stretch but still had a chance to get a bid.

Damn, we coulda had Mark Fox!!1111111

BWillie

03-28-2009, 05:38 PM

I actually like Frank Martin a lot.

I thought it was a silly hire at first... but he's changed my opinion.

I think all 3 local teams have a good future. The Big 12 north is rising.

Now if Mizzou could only recruit like KSU and KU they'd be in business. But with Anderson's system it's alot the style of the player, more than how many stars he has. He just needs athletic guys who can run and he's shown he can find some diamonds in the rough.

KcMizzou

03-28-2009, 05:40 PM

Now if Mizzou could only recruit like KSU and KU they'd be in business. But with Anderson's system it's alot the style of the player, more than how many stars he has. He just needs athletic guys who can run and he's shown he can find some diamonds in the rough.Exactly. You have to find the guys who can run like a deer, and be willing to accept the fact that they wont get 35 minutes every game.

KChiefs1

03-28-2009, 05:52 PM

KU fans are showing Anderson a lot of respect in this thread. Surprising...

KcMizzou

03-28-2009, 05:57 PM

KU fans are showing Anderson a lot of respect in this thread. Surprising...Hard to deny what he's done with this Mizzou team.

A hell of a coach, is a hell of a coach.

Of course, Cody's yet to show his throbbing vag in this thread so far.

KChiefs1

03-28-2009, 07:15 PM

I'll breath a sigh of relief once I hear MU has signed him to an extension.

Coach

03-28-2009, 07:20 PM

I'll breath a sigh of relief once I hear MU has signed him to an extension.

If I was MU's AD, I would do it immediately.

KChiefs1

03-29-2009, 12:07 PM

http://missouri.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=929543

A YEAR TO REMEMBER

Gabe DeArmond
PowerMizzou.com Publisher

All the stories and all the commentary these next couple of days will say Saturday's loss to Connecticut took nothing away from the greatest season in Missouri basketball history. Around 2 o'clock this afternoon, hundreds of Tiger fans will likely be standing outside Mizzou Arena when the team bus comes up, letting the players know they certainly see no tarnish after the 82-75 setback.

<!--Start demarre carroll 267 uconn Image--><SCRIPT language=Javascript>document.write(insertImage('http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/898/776479.jpg', '776479.jpg', 1, 267, 200, 1, 'DeMarre Carroll led the Tigers to heights the program has never seen.', '', 1238331248000, 'demarre carroll 267 uconn', 898, 'Align=Left'));</SCRIPT><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=208 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=202>http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/898/776479.jpg</TD><TD width=6 rowSpan=4>http://vmedia.rivals.com/images/spacer1.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD align=right>Associated Press</TD></TR><TR><TD height=3>http://vmedia.rivals.com/images/spacer1.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>DeMarre Carroll led the Tigers to heights the program has never seen.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- End demarre carroll 267 uconn Image-->You know, that sentiment is right. Yesterday does not diminish this season. But at the same time, I'm not sure it's fair to these Tigers.

When I was in high school, I was on the swim team. There were a handful of kids who came out for the team simply for the exercise or for something to do. They would often lose 100-yard races by more than a lap. The crowd would cheer for them when they finished. We called that the pity clap.

These Tigers don't deserve a pity clap. What Missouri did on Thursday and Saturday was not continue a Cinderella run. No, what Missouri did is validate the first 36 games of the season by pounding Memphis and taking UCONN to the wire. The Tigers deserved to be there. They really are that good.

So often, we base our opinions on a the pre-season guesses of a bunch of sportswriters. They sit in their offices throwing together a list of 25 teams they think are the best. Some of them may actually know. Most simply go off of last year, or reputation, or what they heard somewhere. It's not an insult, it's just the truth. The people who make the polls would say the same thing.

Well, this year, those people picked Missouri seventh in the Big 12. Not one of those writers anywhere gave Missouri so much as a 25th place nod. Miami, Florida, Davidson and Georgetown were all ranked. None made the tournament. Kentucky—yes, the Kentucky that just fired its coach after the first NIT appearance apparently ever—got 75 votes. UAB got two. The school he left was supposed to be better than the school Mike Anderson (http://missouri.rivals.com/viewcoach.asp?Coach=1208) now coached. American, Cal-State Northridge, Drake, St. Joe's and Miami of Ohio all got a vote. Missouri was going to be worse than all of those teams too.

Apparently, nobody includes heart, will and desire as part of their pre-season poll.

Now, I don't want to paint the national media as bumbling idiots. North Carolina, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut were all ranked in the top five in the pre-season. They were all one seeds. Michigan State was picked sixth, Oklahoma 12th. Even Villanova, now a Final Four team, checked in at No. 23.

And that makes what these Tigers did even more impressive. Most of those programs (the other seven that made up the Elite Eight) are basketball bluebloods. All were supposed to be very good. As Leo Lyons (http://missouri.rivals.com/bviewplayer.asp?Player=79909) and Matt Lawrence (http://missouri.rivals.com/bviewplayer.asp?Player=61997) said in the wake of the 82-75 loss on Saturday, Missouri "came from nothing." That's being kind. The Tigers didn't just claw their way up from the ground this season. First, they had to dig out from under a pile of rubble about the size of Mizzou Arena. Only after they brushed aside the issues, both on-court and off, of the last few seasons, could these Tigers start to look up and climb.

And climb they did. From a second half thrashing of USC (pre-season #18) to a domination of California, the Tigers gave fans hope that this was the year things were different. Losses to Illinois and Nebraska knocked those expectations back a little bit. But then the Tigers beat Colorado and Iowa State by a combined 76 points. They won in Stillwater, they beat Texas Tech. Next up was a loss at Kansas State and the questions were back.

<!--Start zaire taylor 267 uconn Image--><SCRIPT language=Javascript>document.write(insertImage('http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/898/776480.jpg', '776480.jpg', 1, 267, 200, 1, 'Zaire Taylor will be one of three seniors next season hoping to continue the new tradition.', '', 1238331289000, 'zaire taylor 267 uconn', 898, 'Align=Right'));</SCRIPT><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=208 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=6 rowSpan=4>http://vmedia.rivals.com/images/spacer1.gif</TD><TD width=202>http://missouri.rivals.com/uploads/898/776480.jpg</TD></TR><TR><TD align=right>Associated Press</TD></TR><TR><TD height=3>http://vmedia.rivals.com/images/spacer1.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>Zaire Taylor will be one of three seniors next season hoping to continue the new tradition.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- End zaire taylor 267 uconn Image-->To me, that's where this season changed. The Baylor Bears came to town. At the time, Baylor was 15-and-5 and right on the edge of the national rankings. They were still a sure-fire NCAA tournament team that had legitimate hopes of challenging for a Big 12 title. Lyons scored 30 and Missouri pounded the Bears 89-72. The win put the Tigers 18-and-4, stamped them as legitimate contenders and kicked off a stretch where they would win 14 times in 16 games.

That streak stopped yesterday at the hands of Connecticut (pre-season No. 2). And, honestly, no it doesn't take much away from the season. It was still a great one.

But read the stories today about the game. Pay attention not to the words of the writers, but to the words coming from the Tigers themselves. They were not happy to be there. They expected not just to win that game, but to win two more.

And you know what? It makes sense. This team was good enough. They didn't get to the first Final Four in school history, mostly because they ran into a team that is almost unfairly big and athletic, partly because one of the smallest guys on that team had the day of his life. But that doesn't mean they weren't good enough to get there. Pitt didn't get there either. They're good enough. Either North Carolina or Oklahoma will miss out. They're most definitely good enough.

This Tiger team belongs in that discussion. They beat Oklahoma. They beat Memphis. They took UCONN all the way to the final minute. They're part of that group. As the round they lost in suggests, Missouri truly was elite this season.

Whether it continues, we will not know for a few months. Can the Tigers be this good again next season? Who really knows? But for the first time in years, the program as a whole is on solid ground. The pride and excitement of Missouri basketball is back.

It would have been fun to hang a Final Four banner, and out of this world to hang a national title commemoration. But in the end, maybe this season ended in the perfect place. Just outside of Phoenix, the nation found out what many of us already knew: A program has risen from the ashes.

mlyonsd

03-29-2009, 12:12 PM

I was rooting for them. I had to leave midway though the first half and I knew I was going to miss a great game.

Skip Towne

03-29-2009, 12:14 PM

Alabama or Kentucky?

I heard Miami

CoMoChief

03-30-2009, 10:58 AM

That picture of Taylor is hilarious, because that was right before AJ Price schooled his ass.

ChiTown

03-30-2009, 11:05 AM

YThat is looking brilliant right now with K-State stuck with Frank Martin...